Money for Nothing

Money for Nothing
Comedy
Director: Andrus Vaarik
Author: Michael Cooney
Translator: Hannes Villemson
Set designer: Andrus Jõhvik
Costume designer: Marta Vaarik
Lighting designer: Karmen Tellisaar
Musical designer: Reigo Ahven
Cast: Nils Mattias Steinberg, Triin Brigitta Heidov, Mauri Liiv, Priit Loog, Enn Keerd, Astra Irene Susi, Kleer Maibaum, Andrus Vaarik, Carmen Mikiver, Kati Ong

For two years, unemployed homeowner Eric Swan has been fraudulently claiming all kinds of benefits from the social services on behalf of fictitious tenants. As the daily arrival of cheques, slips and forms for family, child, single-parent, housing, pregnancy, large-family and widows’ benefits; old-age and disability pensions; carer’s and holiday payments; and Christmas and workplace accident compensation—and his army of imaginary people—begins to overwhelm him, Eric decides to put an end to the fraud. But just then, a social services officer turns up needing the signature of a tenant who does not exist.

A perfectly ordinary October morning begins at number 344 Chilton Road, in rainy east London, and soon fills with mistaken identities, costume changes, misunderstandings and increasingly outrageous lies.

In the old days, it was quite common for actors who had emerged from Pärnu to soon move on to shine on the capital’s stages. It was not unusual, either, for the capital’s stars to come and work for a while at the theatre in the resort town. This is still true today, but the old custom of staging the same plays in every theatre has almost completely disappeared. All the more reason to be pleased that, for Endla Teater’s 115th anniversary, Andrus Vaarik—who came to Pärnu a few years ago to “make it”—is bringing his most successful comedy as a director to the stage here in a new guise.